


shadowed meetings

by aspidocheloner



Category: Protean City Comics (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Villains, F/F, Minific, Pre-Slash, hero/villain nonsense, it's about the yearning, only sage is a villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 10:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22968118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspidocheloner/pseuds/aspidocheloner
Summary: Heroes aren't supposed to work with villains, and they definitely aren't supposed to like them.Holly doesn't mind breaking the status quo.-A simple alleyway meeting.
Relationships: Sage Prince | Night Owl/Holly | Striped Eagle
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	shadowed meetings

**Author's Note:**

> A sapphic mini fic for the PCC Fic Jam of 2020! Set in a universe where our main teens are villains instead of heroes.

The air is heavy with humidity and trepidation. It surrounds Holly as she walks; the storms that have plagued Protean City for weeks are over, but the damp still lingers, settling deep into her bones and making her skin sticky. For all that she dislikes it, the unpleasant weather has its benefits—the amount of civilians on the sidewalks has lessened. Those who remain don’t notice her, even though she’s wearing the Striped Eagle helmet under her hood. Holly appreciates the anonymity. It’s much better than ducking through alleyways like a criminal. Though, considering who she’s meeting, ‘a criminal’ isn’t too far off.

  
She winds through the dark streets for a few minutes before she reaches her destination. The alley is the same as it’s always been, though the cramped space between two abandoned buildings smells sharply of wet metal in a way that makes her head spin. It’s not surprising that she doesn’t like this place. Other than the not-so-desirable location, Holly doubts she knows any heroes who’d enjoy the place where they met with a villain, much less one who keeps them waiting.

  
She’s barely had time to acknowledge the telltale prickle of annoyance in the back of her mind when the wind shifts. Orphea’s arrival is silent, but her presence is unmistakable. Power has a special weight, one that makes the air thick and suffocating, and Holly’s all too familiar with it. The dizzying smell of ozone and dying flowers doesn’t help much either. Turning on her heel, she faces Orphea; somewhere behind the villain, a shambling beast lurks, though Holly can’t see it in the shadows. She doesn’t need to. Orphea always brings her Eurydice.

  
Unlike Holly, who conceals her identity by wearing her helmet, Orphea’s face is on full display. She’s pretty in the same way that a knife is pretty; her clever green eyes and the cruel twist to her plum-stained lips warn that, despite her gentle features, Sage Prince is far from sweet.

  
She stalks forward from the darkness, lips stretching into a shark-like smile as she drawls, “Hello, Striped Eagle. You look lovely as ever.”

  
“Hello to you too, Orphea,” Holly replies, rolling her eyes and ignoring the sudden warmth to her cheeks. “You said you had some intel on the Appointed?”

  
“Aren’t you going to tell me I’m lovely?”

  
“I’d like to keep things professional.”

  
“All work and no play, Eaglet? That’s not very fun.”

  
“Orphea.” Holly’s voice is sharp as it cuts between them. “The information.”

  
For a second, Orphea keeps up the act; she huffs and pouts, much like a scorned child. Then she drops the facade. With a roll of her shoulders, her body language slides from exaggerated to casual; she blinks, and hooded flirtation is replaced by cool calculation. The reputation Sage has constructed—seductive and simple, a loose cannon who likes to bat her eyelashes—is a better mask for her than any helmet Holly could offer. It took Holly a long time to realize that; the exact same amount of time it took Sage to trust her with the truth.

  
“This is a courtesy call,” Sage says, and her tone is almost apologetic. “Within the next month, the Appointed will host a teenage outreach event. We’ll be there to shut it down.”

  
Holly sighs. It’s not a surprise. While the heroes decide the diplomatic way to handle the Appointed issue, the villains are picking up the slack. That’s why they started this, these clandestine meetings between hero and villain.

  
“You know, I’m really supposed to stop you when you tell me things like that,” she points out and watches as Sage’s eyes flash. They both know that won’t be happening; Holly wants the Appointed gone just as much as Sage does.

  
“Just take care of the civilians, alright? I don’t think my team will be as careful as I’d like.”

  
“Everything okay?”

  
Sage grimaces, sighs. Emotions play across her expressive face in quick succession. Then, like she has so many times before, she trusts Holly.

  
“The Appointed puts Misfortune on edge, which means John’s unhappy, and when John’s unhappy he’s volatile,” She laughs at the Holly’s dubious expression, and continues. “More volatile than normal. Which I could handle, except the boys feed off each other, and Alina’s too far gone to help me pull them back.”

  
“You need heroes there to keep the blood off your hands,” Holly points out, surprising herself with the bitterness in her voice, but Sage doesn’t seem to notice. She just moves forward, her eyes growing darker in a way that Holly hates to recognize.

  
“We don’t care about hurting people, about killing, even. God knows that our hands are already stained red. But we care when they’re innocent. It might not seem like it, but we do. What we’re doing with the Appointed? They’re just reaping what they’ve sown.”

  
With her dark hair falling across her face and the shadows creeping in, Sage looks wild. She looks dangerous. Holly feels her heart skip a beat and tries to tell herself it’s fear. Sage is right. The Appointed is poisoning Protean City, creeping through the streets like a plague, and it makes her skin itch.

  
They’re silent together for a few long moments. Their breathing is so loud, and Holly notices for the first time how close they’ve gotten to each other. If she reached out, she’d be touching Sage. They’d only ever touched each other to hurt. When she breaks the silence, it’s a whisper, but it’s heard all the same.

  
“Hit them hard for me, okay? I’ll keep your conscience clean.”

  
Sage is looking at her with bright eyes and an unfamiliar expression; if Holly didn’t know better, she’d call it hunger. For a moment, she leans in, swaying into Holly’s orbit. The few seconds feel like they last a lifetime. Holly blinks, and the distance returns. Sage becomes Orphea with a sultry cock of her hip.

  
“I’ll do what I can, Eaglet. See you next time.”

  
And then she’s gone. Holly takes a deep breath—it still smells like ozone, but the bite of wet metal is returning—and leans against the wall. Her knees feel weak.

  
“See you next time, Orphea,” She mumbles to no one, then pulls herself up. It’s time to head home.

**Author's Note:**

> this is a mess but i sure did make it


End file.
